Users are increasingly accessing online content and services via various different types of devices and networks. As a result, online content and service providers are attempting to solve the complex problem of optimizing services, advertising, and/or backend analytics for these different devices and networks. While traditional network detection solutions may provide some limited information about a network connection, such solutions may not have adequate detection and/or analysis tools to meet the needs of many online content and service providers.
One of the issues with traditional network detection solutions is that they may fail to account for differing detection and analysis needs of online content and service providers. For example, advertisers may want information to help them properly tailor content for a specific client or a network carrier but may be limited in the detection signals they can use due to relationships with network carriers. As another example, content providers may want to know technical specifications of a user's device and/or network to provide a faster or smoother experience for the user. Unfortunately, traditional methods of identifying client devices and network carriers may not have the flexibility or capacity to meet these different backend requirements. Thus, as client and network carrier structures become more complex, there is an increased need to improve network detection and provide relevant network detection results to online content and service providers.